Mini reviews of old movies, mostly VHS tapes purchased by Eli Schuster in Goodwill, Value Village and Salvation Army stores across Toronto. Think of this site as a follow-up to http://www.minireviewsminibooks.blogspot.com/

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Primary Colors (1998)

American Political
Movie #3

Synopsis: in a nutshell, Barack Obama joins ’92 Clinton campaign and realizes he doesn’t like what he
sees.

Blurb From the VHS
Jacket: “Jack Stanton (John Travolta) is a virtually unknown Southern
governor on a quest for the White House with his strong, savvy and equally
ambitious wife, Susan (Emma Thompson). Running against all odds, the Stanton
need all the help they can get from their extremely colorful political team”

What Did I Learn?:
Pointing a revolver at a dude’s nuts is apparently an effective means of extracting a legally-binding confession.

Really?: 1) See “What
Did I Learn?” 2) I’m pretty sure that any male employee – even a so-called
master strategist – would immediately get the heave-ho from a campaign after
whipping his dick out to a room full of onlookers. 3) Wouldn’t Governor Picker
have realized his cocaine-fueled sex life of two decades earlier would catch up
with him if he ran for President?

Rating:Primary Colors is a fun, and
occasionally thoughtful through-the-looking-glass satire about the pressures of
running for office. While it’s worth watching, the film veers badly off course
whenever Kathy Bates’ larger-than-life character appears on-screen, and
Travolta’s rather obvious Clinton impression is a huge distraction. I have to
wonder: couldn’t he have created a new character from scratch and tried acting,
instead of pretending to be Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live? 6.5/10 stars.